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Sony PRS-600 Reader Touch EditionReview When we reviewed Sony's original PRS-505 Reader a little over 12 months ago, our only real criticism was that the plethora of buttons and switches that festooned the device would be better replaced by a touchscreen. Revised edition: Sony's PRS-600 Reader Touch Now Sony has released its next-generation Reader, the PRS-600, which does indeed have a touch screen, hence its 'Touch Edition' moniker. Having asked, we have received. But should we grateful? Look at the Touch from any direction other than face on and the differences between it and the old Reader are a hard...

The DSi shatters and fragments, which is more effective at maiming and disabling a target. On the other hand, the N97 remains whole, for greater penetration through tough surfaces. Both, however, are fun to look at. Far from an honest ballistics test, the shoot(ing), staged by French gaming magazine Amusement, was just an opportunity to snap a few stunning photos. Which is fine! And which they did! So, where's the video? Update: Yeah, you guys are right—the black one is an N97, not a PSP. Still though!

We've yet to see a trade show where Sony left its Rhode Island-sized booth at home, and CEATEC is no exception. Aside from pushing its 1080p 3D installations with an epic amount of force, the company also had a smattering of swank new concepts on display that caught our eyes. A 0.2 millimeter-thin flexible OLED display was alive and displaying content, while an ultrathin Reader mock-up looked more like a MID and less like a Kindle. Without question, the two items that took our breath away were the all-panel laptop (which tossed the traditional keyboard in favor of a...

I am trying to create recovery disks for a Sony Vaio. After getting to help and support windows, and clicking on a link for "recovery disks," I reach a window that explains what recovery disks are and what they do. The last line in this window says, "to create recovery disks, click next." However, this window has no link labeled "next" and no clickable button labeled "next." Furthermore, the window cannot be maximized (there is no maximize icon), or does it have horizontal or vertical scrolling. In other words, there's nothing to click. Has anyone run into this issue? How...

BERLIN--We're here at IFA at the Sony press conference, where Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer reckons the "3D train is on the track--and we're the ones to drive it home." 3D is Sony's big push, but we're more interested in the announcement of a movie-download service for PS3 and PSP, via the PlayStation Network. Sony has announced its first 3D-compatible Bravia LCD TV, to arrive in 2010. It promises a high frame rate and 1,920x1,080 pixels per eye to give what Sony describes as "high-definition, high-quality 3D images." 3D-enabled Blu-ray players are set to follow and even the PS3 will...

After being banned from a game for "trash talking", Erik Estavillo wants $55,000 and says he needs the game to socializeWhat happens when you take away someone’s video games? You might get sued. A San Jose, Calif., man is suing Sony, claiming the company violated his first amendment rights when they banned him from playing the PlayStation 3 game "Resistance" for something he may have said while communicating with other players. Erik Estavillo, who says he suffers from agoraphobia, a fear of crowds and public places, depends completely on the PlayStation game for social interaction. But Sony occasionally bans users...

A federal jury Thursday found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the Internet and fined her $80,000 each — a total of $1.9 million — for 24 songs. Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s case was the first such copyright infringement case to go to trial in the United States, her attorney said. Attorney Joe Sibley said that his client was shocked at fine, noting that the price tag on the songs she downloaded was 99 cents...

Compact discs weren't always impromptu drink coasters. Once, in the not-so-distant past, they played music, contained pictures, and let people play video games with tacked-on FMV sequences. And today, the venerable CD turned 30. Happy birthday! 1979-2009.Thirty years. Pretty amazing that it's been that long since those crazy Dutchmen at Philips spun the technology off of laser discs as part of an optical digital audio disc demo in Eindhoven.Of course, the CD didn't immediately take off right then and there. It needed a little help from Sony, which worked with Philips to get the format standardized. The standard they named...

Sony closing Metreon PlayStation, Style stores Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, February 17, 2009. SAN FRANCISCO -- Sony is closing its PlayStation and Style stores in the Metreon, ending the company's involvement with the San Francisco entertainment and retail complex it built 10 years ago and more recently sold to developers. Sony said it will not renew the 10-year leases on the stores and will consider other locations for future retail sites. The flagship PlayStation store, the only one of its kind in the United States, will close June 16, while the Sony Style store will be shuttered sooner,...

Sony one of the worlds largest electronic companies has teamed up with the Islamic propaganda giant of the world Al Jazeera. Now Sony cellphone owners in the Middle East and North Africa can have the news feed from Al Jazeera pre-installed on their phones.

Coming to Sony Ericsson mobile phones: JihadTV. The Al Jazeera Network has announced a partnership with Sony Ericsson, where RSS feeds of its news content will be pre-installed on four models of its mobile devices in both the Middle East and North Africa. This means that owners of these phones will soon be able to enjoy quality programming like this: a birthday party for a child killer, Samir Kuntar, who forced a little girl to watch as he shot her father, then bashed her brains out with a rifle butt. Sony Ericsson should be ashamed of themselves for promoting this...

I thought it might be useful to have a thread for game recommendations. Thread suggestions: While popular games like Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, and Metal Gear Solid 4 deserve every bit of attention they've received, I can't think of a gamer that doesn't know of their existence. Let's focus on the hidden gems and lesser known games. Let's not get into system wars. The Wii, 360, PS3, PC and Mac all have their own must-have games. If you're a hardcore gamer, odds are good that you own all of these platforms anyway, so please keep your stoney, ninthing, and...

Sony to cut 16,000 jobs, scale back investment TOKYO, Dec. 9 KYODO Sony Corp. said Tuesday it will cut about 16,000 jobs around the world by March 2010 as part of a major restructuring plan to combat deteriorating business conditions amid the global economic slowdown. The cut of 16,000 jobs will be roughly equally shouldered by regular and temporary workforces worldwide. The 8,000 regular jobs to be cut represent about 5 percent of the firm's total workforce of 160,000 in the electronics division on a global basis at the end of September. Sony did not give a country breakdown for...

The West can longer complain about the lack of moderate Muslims who voice their opposition to radical Islam. For when moderates do step up, we silence them in deference to extremists. When, Sony, the manufacturers of the videogame LittleBigPlanet found out that the game’s background music contained two phrases from the Qur’an, they immediately delayed the product’s release, so as not to upset radical Muslims who take offense at the words of their holy book being set to music. A new version, with the “offensive” song removed, is set to go on sale on November 3 in the UK, and...

Sony Robots bust a move! holy cow. the japanese are taking things to a whole new level. this is awesome, if not for much more than entertainment value.

Sony's Little Big Planet is one of the most high-profile releases of this holiday season. Developer Media Molecule has seen its game go from indie darling to AAA system-seller in the past year, thanks to the many appearances that the game has made at trade shows and events. However, fans of the game are going to have to wait slightly longer to get it. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that it is recalling the game from retailers after it learned that the soundtrack featured some Arabic-language lines from the Qur'an backed with music. A SCEE representative also confirmed to...

After years of barging over husky defenders on the gridiron, ex-Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown is attempting to tackle two serious video game heavyweights in court. According to Bloomberg, Brown has filed suit against Sony Computer Entertainment America and Electronic Arts over using his likeness in the popular Madden football series. He seeks a court order preventing either company from continuing to use his likeness in the franchise as well as damages stemming from trademark violation. At issue is the starting running back on Madden's "All Browns Team." The character is African-American and bears the same jersey number Brown...

She's plump, powerful and ready to cause more controversy than "SuperSize Me." She's Fat Princess, the star of Sony's upcoming video game of the same name. Debuting at last week's E3 expo, the colorful Fat Princess is a capture-the-flag game with a twist: you can thwart capture attempts by locking the once-thin princess in a dungeon and stuffing her full of cake, thereby increasing her girth and making her harder for your enemies to haul back to home base. According to popular gaming blog Joystiq, two feminist gaming sites have already voiced their displeasure with the weighty issue. Feminist Gamer's...

LOS ANGELES - In a bid to regain lost ground in the fiercely competitive gaming business, Sony announced Tuesday that it will cut the price of its high-end PlayStation 3 console by $100. It also will introduce downloads of movies and TV shows to the game machine's online store and, with some software partners, roll out a number of exclusive games. The moves suggested that Sony still views Microsoft as its chief rival rather than market leader Nintendo, which seems focused on extending its lead. But, of course, that's not how Sony brass portrayed its announcements at a press event...

Sony has pulled the latest PlayStation 3 firmware update after complaints that it is causing problems with the game console and sometimes bricking (cannot function in any capacity) PS3s. It's unclear how widespread the problem is. Sony claims problems with its PS3 firmware (2.4) have only affected an isolated number of customers' machines. There have been a number of people on the Sony PS3 forums who have described problems with the PS3 update made available just yesterday. One camp of PS3 users complain of their consoles are freezing up. Others have had better luck, but report once the firmware has...

There’s some idea out there in the world that Will Smith "owns" the July 4 holiday weekend in terms of box office. I guess this is because of "Independence Day," one of my favorite movies, and "Men in Black," also quite good, released, respectively, in 1996 and 1997 on that weekend. Alas, all good hype must come to an end. "Hancock," with which Sony is hoping to have a merry July 4, 2008, may not duplicate Smith’s previous successes. It is one of the worst family holiday weekend releases of recent memory — and jaw-droppingly so. And that’s hard to...

Think you paid too much for your Playstation 3? Don't expect any sympathy from Sony. In the company's fiscal 2008 annual report, Sony revealed that they've now lost roughly $3.3 billion (that's billion with a B) on the Playstation 3 since its launch. That breaks down to $2.16 billion in 2007, followed by a notably smaller but equally daunting $1.16 billion loss in 2008.

Fathers Eugene O'Hagan, his brother Martin and David Delargy London, Apr 25, 2008 / 01:27 am (CNA).- Three Catholic priests from Northern Ireland have signed a recording contract worth nearly $2 million for the music giant Sony BMG.Fathers Eugene O’Hagan, 48, his brother Martin, 45, and their old school friend David Delargy, 44, signed the deal near the steps of Westminster Cathedral.  The three men, who call their trio “The Priests,” said they would donate the money made from the music to charity.The three priests developed their musical talent at St. MacNissi’s College in County Antrim.  There, they were...

Sony has begun offering Fresh Start, a controversial practice to clean its systems of unnecessary software. Initially available only with the VAIO TZ ultraportable, the option removes both VAIO-specific programs as well as games and other trial software. The practice is meant to "free up valuable hard drive space and conserve memory and processing power" before the system ever leaves the factory, according to Sony. However, the offer has already received criticism for its $50 cost, which lifts the price of the system despite restoring the performance that would be present with a default installation of Windows. The practice has...

Intel Corp. may release six-core microprocessors as early as in the second half of this year, according to a number of media reports. However, if those claims are correct, then it may mean not only another powerful central processing unit for Intel and a threat to chips from Advanced Micro Devices, but also a further delay in unification of Intel Itanium and Intel Xeon platforms. Intel needs a chip to update its multi-processor (MP) enterprise server platform this year as no Nehalem-based microprocessor for the MP market segment is planned for 2008... However, it seems like unified Quick Path Interconnect...

Only a day after Toshiba pulled HD DVD from the high-definition DVD business, conceding defeat in a long-running format war with Sony's Blu-ray, the company has officially finalized a previously announced $835M joint venture with its rival that will help lower PS3 production costs. The joint venture, to be named at a later date, will manufacture Cell chips and RSX graphic chips, both used in the PS3, as well as other microchips that go into Toshiba products. With this, Sony is trying to streamline its operations by getting rid of assets which it simply does not need or are not...

The first factor that needs to be put completely to one side is picture quality. Unless you are a technology geek with a television the size of a multiplex cinema screen, there is no difference between the output of HD DVD and Blu-ray machines. Both offer high definition DVD playback superior to standard DVD players. Where Sony had the killer edge is that its Playstation 3 (PS3) computer games console comes pre-fitted with a Blu-ray player. So as Sony has sold 10.5 million PS3 consoles since it was launched in late 2006, that is 10.5 million Blu-ray machines already in...

TOKYO — Toshiba's decision to no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD DVD players and recorders will mean consumers can start feeling more confident about buying the victorious rival technology — a Blu-ray disc player. Analysts say competition is expected to heat up among the manufacturers of Blu-ray players and recorders, which include Japanese makers Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Sharp Corp. as well as Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea. In making the announcement, Toshiba Corp. President Atsutoshi Nishida said he wanted to avoid confusion among consumers.

We bought a Sony Bravia KDL-46XBR2 LCD television recently. We get "regular" television via a DirecTV receiver. The input to the receiver is coax cable from the satellite, and the output from the receiver (and hence input to the TV) is S video and audio red/white. Question: the family is complaining about the quality of the satellite TV reception. In testing things, I disconnected the satellite receiver and plugged in a VCR. Then I played a pre-recorded videotape. The family looked at the videotape and are happy with the quality. They think the quality of the video is better than...

TOKYO - Sony is dropping its money-losing rear-projection TV business worldwide to focus on two flat panel technologies — liquid crystal display and organic light-emitting diode, the company said Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT Sales of rear-projection TVs had been declining recently as LCD TVs gain in popularity and get bigger, Sony Corp. spokesman Shinji Obana said. In October, Sony lowered its global sales forecast for rear-projection TVs — which uses a projector to create images on large screens — to 400,000 from 700,000, which is down from 1.1 million the previous fiscal year. By contrast, Sony expects to sell 10 million LCD...

We are trying to connect a laptop to our new Sony Bravia TV, model KDF-46XBR2. Both the laptop and the Bravia have an RGB female 15-pin jack, and we have a cable that connects the two. We've read the manual, but it is basically useless. Obviously, we'd like the PC output to display on the TV. Question: what else must we do besides the Fn-F8 to "toggle" the PC display? Which video input (1 through 9) if any does the PC use? Or, does it simply override whatever video is playing at the moment? Thanks.

Wie, who has played in the PGA Tour event at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu every year since 2004, did not receive one of the four sponsor exemptions... she wasn't ready for professional golf. Two of the Sony Open sponsor exemptions will still go to Hawaii teenagers.

Dr Gaurav Khanna is a professor at the University of Massachusetts. He has been renting supercomputers at NASA and the US National Science Foundation for US$20,000-$30,000 a year to run complicated calculations on just how much radiation is emitted in the process of a black hole swallowing a star... "For US$4,000 or so, I can get eight PS3s that can do the same task that I'd do on a supercomputer. For a one-time cost, I have this resource I can use privately. I can use it indefinitely over and over again. That's hugely attractive. That's why I considered the project....

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A fox-like alien and his robot sidekick on a mission to save the galaxy could also help save sales of Sony's PlayStation 3, which has struggled to find a game so good that it gives people reason to buy the pricey console. Microsoft's Xbox 360 has had several, including this year's "Halo 3," but Sony is still trying to find a megahit of its own as games like "Heavenly Sword" and "Folklore" have failed to make the kind of splash needed to convince holdouts. Now comes "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction," a...

Duluth, Minnesota — Testimony today in Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas quickly and inadvertently turned to the topic of fair use when Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG, was called to the stand to testify. Pariser said that file-sharing is extremely damaging to the music industry and that record labels are particularly affected. In doing so, she advocated a view of copyright that would turn many honest people into thieves. Pariser noted that music labels make no money on touring, radio, or merchandise, which leaves the company particularly exposed to the negative effects of file-sharing....

Sony can't catch a break after its infamous rootkit scandal back in 2005. In fact, we know from talking to security researchers and black hats alike that Sony is under the careful eye of many as a result of that major screwup. Now, a new story has come out involving Sony's biometric Micro Vault USM-F thumb drive, which apparently contains a rootkit that could potentially allow hackers to compromise users' PCs. The presence of the rootkit was first discovered by F-Secure, and was confirmed by Aditya Kapoor and Seth Purdy, researchers at McAfee, and posted on their blog. FTC finally...

Police: Pa. Boy Stabs Brother Over Game Jul 17 01:16 PM US/Eastern LANSDOWNE, Pa. (AP) - A 13-year-old boy fatally stabbed his brother with a steak knife after the 16-year-old refused to turn over a video game controller, authorities said. Jahmir Ricks was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Antwan Ricks at their home outside Philadelphia. The older boy died of a single stab wound to the chest, police said, and a bent and bloody knife was recovered from the home. Lansdowne police said the younger boy told them, "I just stabbed my brother," when they arrived at...

REPORTS OF A LAPTOP exploding into flames have caused Toshiba to urge its customers to check their packages. Toshiba laid the blame for the flames, that on May 24th, engulfed the British laptop, on a Sony battery pack. Toshiba said it asked Sony to investigate the incident and the firm indeed found that the battery was at fault. It was identified as being on Toshiba's warning list, but had never been replaced. As you should be aware, laptop computers can explode at any second, especially if they have one of the ten million or so dodgy, Sony-built batteries glowing inside....

Canadian encryption vendor Certicom yesterday filed a wide-ranging lawsuit against Sony, claiming that many of the products offered by the electronics giant infringe on two Certicom patents. This might sound like business as usual until you realize what's being targeted: AACS and (by extension) the PlayStation 3. Certicom has done extensive work in elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), and the patents in question build on this work. The patents have already been licensed by groups like the US National Security Agency, which paid $25 million back in 2003 for the right to use 26 Certicom patents, including the two in the...

PlayStation 3 gives Blu-ray disc sales a boost Impact of new console in market "significant" by Amy-Mae Elliott Print | Email | Save | PDF Tags ps3 261 news, 20 reviews Blu-ray 64 news, 3 reviews sony 257 news, 84 reviews >> More tags 23 May 2007 - News from the Blu-ray Disc Association suggests that the impact of PlayStation 3 on sales of Blu-ray Disc movies in North America and Japan after the launch of the console last November has been "significant". Early market data sourced by the association indicates that a similar trend is developing in Western Europe....

Wii on winning spree, scores fourth consecutive win over rivals by Shubha Krishnappa - May 19, 2007 - 2 comments Among the trio of next generation gaming consoles, Nintendo has emerged as the numero uno in April for the fourth consecutive month after selling 360,000 of the popular video game devices in the United States, repeatedly outshining both its rivals Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in the US video game consoles market. After attaining the top position in the first three months of the year, Nintendo has once again performed exceptionally well by selling nearly four times as...

Wii on winning spree, scores fourth consecutive win over rivals by Shubha Krishnappa - May 19, 2007 - 2 comments Among the trio of next generation gaming consoles, Nintendo has emerged as the numero uno in April for the fourth consecutive month after selling 360,000 of the popular video game devices in the United States, repeatedly outshining both its rivals Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in the US video game consoles market. After attaining the top position in the first three months of the year, Nintendo has once again performed exceptionally well by selling nearly four times as...

TOKYO — Field Emission Technologies Inc., carved out of Sony Corp. to commercialize field-emission display technology, will demonstrate a prototype FED panel here at Display 2007, scheduled to run April 18-20. Initial commercial offerings are targeted for 2009. FE Technology took over FED development from Sony when it was spun off from the Japanese consumer giant in December. Sony holds a 36.5 percent stake in the company. Tokyo-based carve-out fund Tech Gate Investment is the majority equity holder. Sony undertook FED development in 1998, working with Candescent Technologies Corp. When Candescent filed for bankruptcy in 2004, Canon Inc. purchased the...

Sony really knows how to party. It wasn't enough to have topless ladies at the God of War II European unveiling, they had to go and decapitate a goat and put it on display. Not only that, they invited visitors to stick their hands down the neck, grab out some intestines (not the goat's own, they were procured elsewhere and shoved inside), and eat them. Fantastic. Best yet, the entire thing was documented in their official PlayStation magazine, whose 80,000 print run has been recalled thanks to the stunt. Nice work Sony. Next time, just call it a day after...

Electronics giant Sony has sparked a major row over animal cruelty and the ethics of the computer industry by using a freshly slaughtered goat to promote a violent video game. The corpse of the decapitated animal was the centrepiece of a party to celebrate the launch of the God Of War II game for the company's PlayStation 2 console. Guests at the event were even invited to reach inside the goat's still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach. Sickening images of the party have appeared in the company's official PlayStation magazine – but after being contacted by The Mail...

TOKYO, April 12 - Sony Corp. said on Thursday it planned to start selling ultra-thin TVs using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology this year, aiming to become the first to market with a TV using the promising next-generation display. Several companies are investing in OLED technology because it can produce bright, colourful images and does not require a backlight as do liquid crystal displays (LCDs), allowing for a thinner panel. OLED panels are also said to be energy-efficient and good at reproducing fast-moving images. At a display forum in Tokyo, customers, suppliers and even rival TV makers turned their backs...

In an interview with Martin Matt, from the popular GameIndustry.biz site, Sony UK managing director Ray Maguire calls America "a land of cheap people", while the UK is “a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium”. When asked about the high price of the PS3 in PAL areas, especially in the UK (where Sony’s console is currently being sold for GBP 425- US $840- more expensive than anywhere in Europe) this is what Ray Maguire had to say: “If you take what's considered to be the most expensive and the least expensive – consider the US...

I can report today that Jackson will lose his hold on the Beatles catalog and Sony/ATV Music Publishing on May 31, 2008. That date, revealed here for the first time, is known as the "Liquidation Sale" among insiders. [Snip] Selling his half of Sony-ATV back to Sony won’t be so easy for Jackson or so lucrative. According to testimony in various Prescient depositions, Jackson could be charged as much as $250 million “off the top” by Sony for expenses they’ve incurred while running the partnership. That would whittle down his potential $600 million windfall almost by half. A further subtraction...

PS3: difficult stories emerge in run up to Euro launch http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2007/02/13/ps3_difficult_stories_emerge_in_run_up_to_euro_launch.html [...] More juicy perhaps, is the comment made on a blog named FreeRepublic.com, by EA employee Dr. Andrew Garrett: "My opinion - get the 360 and/or the Wii. Skip the PS3 unless there's a big change in the near future." You can read his full post here. Naturally, anti-Sony zealots are spinning this as 'EA says skip PS3', which means Dr Garrett is probably in a whole heap of trouble. That's the problem with the modern videogame industry and the web - the two are utterly incompatible... Blog culture...

Sure, the PlayStation 3 got off to a rocky start and is now only number 3 in next-gen console sales, but Sony Computer Entertainment claims that things couldn’t be better. Well, it could definitely be better, but in any case, Sony is happy with its current status in the market. NPD sales data reported Thursday that the sale of 243,443 units in North America during the month of January contributed to a record $550 million in revenues. Strong sales of the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation Portable, which earned sales of 299,352 and 210,719 units respectively, was also a major...